Hong Kong (4th November 2015) – The AIA Great European Carnival will take pride of place once again at the Central Harbourfront Event Space, from 17th December 2015 through until 21st February 2016. The 67-day Carnival will run over all the major festive dates including Christmas, New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s Day and Chinese New Year – with special celebrations planned for each.

The AIA Great European Carnival won major awards including the Best Event Consumer, and Best Sponsorship Activation, at the Marketing Events Awards 2015, run by Marketing Magazine. After attracting more than 830,000 visitors last year, the event promises to be even bigger this year with all the favourite rides returning in addition to a number of new rides coming from all around Europe. There will be new and revitalised games and complete range of new plush toys over 1,000,000 to be won during the carnival period.

“We were so pleased with the success of The AIA Great European Carnival last year and the joy it brought to the people of Hong Kong and this year we are committed to taking the event to the next level,” said Michael Denmark, CEO of promoter TGEC. “With thanks to the Government, the Hong Kong Tourism Board and some key partners, we were able to introduce a number of new concepts to make it a truly Carnival-meets-Festival entertainment experience, all keeping within our traditional European theme. It will be another first for Hong Kong.”

Perhaps the most visible addition to this year’s Carnival will be the entertainment space in the form of an upside down purple cow named ‘Violet’, which will host the Udderbelly Festival, one of the United Kingdom’s most popular festival events. The Udderbelly Festival Hong Kong, also presented by AIA, will offer a variety of entertainment for young and old including talented music acts, comedy, children’s shows and stage performances.

Said Ed Bartlam, one of the founders and directors of the Udderbelly Festival: “Udderbelly Festival Hong Kong is our first adventure into the live entertainment market in Asia. Hong Kong is known around the globe as one of the world’s greatest cities and with the location for Udderbelly in the heart of Central, we couldn’t be more delighted.”

The AIA Great European Carnival will also introduce Hong Kong to the Luminaire experience, spectacular grand structures made of handcrafted lights from Italy, which will light up the Carnival at night. It is a craft that has been handed from father to son for more than 400 years. The popular photo boards this year will be 3D scaled replicas of iconic landmarks from across Europe, such as the Eiffel Tower, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and Big Ben among many others. Hong Kong’s only outdoor ice-skating rink returns and there will be plenty more roaming street artists, a centralised food court offering an array of European food and beverage and non-stop entertainment on the main stage.

Of this year’s AIA Great European Carnival, Jacky Chan, CEO of AIA Hong Kong and Macau, said: “AIA is exhilarated to be the title sponsor once again of The AIA Great European Carnival this year. By working with TGEC to bring back this event, we hope to encourage people to cherish every precious moment with their loved ones and to create lots of lifelong happy memories with friends and family. As ‘The Real Life Company’, AIA is committed to accompanying its customers on the remarkable journey of life and to experience every exciting moment and heart-warming event with them.”

The AIA Great European Carnival 2015/16 promises to offer exceptional fun and entertainment for every visitor. “There is no event like this in Hong Kong,” says Denmark. “The scale at which we are offering all the thrills that a Carnival brings, while recreating traditional European experiences during the most festive period of the year, is unprecedented. To host it on the Central harbour front makes it easily accessible to everyone in Hong Kong. We hope the AIA Great European Carnival continues to provide everlasting memories for the people of this amazing city and visitors alike.”